SOMA studio says its subsequent sport shouldn’t be 'annoying or scary' within the conventional sense, nevertheless it'll nonetheless mess you up actual good: 'The objective is to evoke this deep existential terror that stays lengthy after you end enjoying'
One of many reveals I used to be most jazzed for at The Sport Awards 2025 was Ontos, the brand new factor from Frictional Video games. I am a fan of the studio’s work on the whole, and I beloved the best way SOMA took the ageing Amnesia formulation and one way or the other made it higher (and a lot worse) by dialing again the in-the-moment horror of oh jeez gonna die and injecting a wholesome dose of existential nightmares that is left me nonetheless sometimes considering, greater than 10 years later, man, what would I do?
In mild of these good instances, I am very completely happy to listen to that Ontos goals to go even tougher on that extra cerebral tackle horror. “In your extra normal horror sport, say the primary Amnesia, the main target is to have gamers survive in a scary atmosphere. The intent is to evoke a really primal sense of concern,” Frictional Video games artistic director Thomas Grip advised GamesRadar.
Grip mentioned Ontos “is definitely the deepest and most complicated sport we’ve finished from a story perspective,” and “rather more open” than SOMA: There is a better concentrate on exploration and discovery, and a diminished emphasis on puzzles in favor of “interactive story scenes” wherein gamers are offered with numerous methods to resolve situations and transfer ahead. That sounds a bit like an previous Telltale journey, however Grip mentioned these choices “will not be laid out to the participant,” however have to be found—and naturally, “additionally it is doable to screw all of it up in case you are not cautious.”
Exploration in Frictional video games is historically a fraught course of: You are by no means allowed to overlook that when you’re poking round in corners and beneath tables, some psyche-shattering horror from past the seventh dimension is quietly sneaking up behind you. It appears like Ontos can be a a lot much less nerve-wracking expertise than its predecessors, nonetheless.
“Our intention is to not make a annoying or scary sport within the conventional sense,” Grip mentioned. “Ontos shouldn’t be a sport about survival. As an alternative it’s about offering a hands-on expertise the place gamers are compelled to grapple with heavy and thought upsetting themes. The objective is to evoke this deep existential terror that stays lengthy after you end enjoying.”
For me, that is nice: I am a giant fan of Amnesia’s work, as I mentioned, however I additionally actually do not take care of horror, and the expertise of enjoying Frictional video games is genuinely annoying and unsightly. In a great way! But in addition, not good in any respect. It is onerous to clarify: I really like having had the expertise after the very fact, however the precise moment-to-moment of experiencing it? Not a lot. So if Ontos actually is ready to double down on the SOMA strategy of, “You will not be completely terrified now, however you may be haunted for the remainder of your life when it is over,” nicely, that does not sound so nice once I spell it out like that both. However I will take it.